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The coffee tree and its fruits

Coffee is a tropical plant widely cultivated in many countries between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. The coffee tree is an evergreen shrub which easily grows to a height of 4 m (about 14 feet). It bears small white flowers that bloom for only a few days, and develop into small crimson fruits (called in botany “drupes”) which, when fully ripe, resemble cherries. It is very common for the coffee tree to produce flowers and fruits at the same time which makes it possible for harvesting to be carried out more than once during the year. However, the ideal time for harvesting is when the drupes are bright red, but not excessively ripe, as they would not produce a good coffee bean. A coffee tree can yield up to 3 Kg of coffee beans, therefore the same tree can be harvested several times during the span of a year. If picked by hands, harvesting the coffee beans can be quite tough. If you were thinking about starting a business in coffee growing, you’d better be very patient, since the coffee tree produces its first full crop starting from its fifth year onwards; thereafter it produces consistently for up to 25 years.

The price of coffee is tightly linked with the annual yield of marketable beans. As mentioned above, coffee production becomes profitable from the fifth year onwards whereas, after that, trees yield consistently, and thus affects coffee price throughout global markets. This market price is also subject to a slue of external factors, and as a result, the price of coffee is subject to volatile changes from one year to the next. Since the coffee industry involves a large amount of workers, such as the producers and pickers to exporters/importers and retailers, it is easy to see how a bad yield and the subsequent drop of the price of coffee can quickly spiral into despair for hundreds of people at a time in the industry. The coffee trade during the XIX century, and part of the XX century, for example, were subject to these reoccurring crises, which even today plague the industry.

However, let us retract to the positive side of the matter: the description of the coffee tree, perhaps the most widely loved plant in the entire world. It can be cultivated in different climatic conditions. More than 60 coffee varieties are grown, although the three most well known are: Arabica, Liberica and Robusta. The most hardy variety, Robusta, is indigenous of Congo and, as the name suggests, is resistant to diverse climatic conditions and disease. Its fruits are of a lower quality and are often used for cheaper, commercial blends and in the processing of instant coffee, which is none-the-less still very appreciated in some countries. Another hardy variety is Liberica, from Liberia, but is less productive in terms of quantity. Lastly, the most widely grown and loved coffee variety is Arabica, and accounts for the highest percentage of the world production. It is indigenous to Ethiopia but was soon brought to the Arab countries, and is also cultivated on the mountains of Yemen. From these originating countries, the very first reports narrating by European authors who described coffee growing techniques began.